


Lost in translation

by wanderingsmith



Category: The Expendables (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 02:17:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3673785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingsmith/pseuds/wanderingsmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barney's head rose from the glossy paper to give him one of his warm smiles, "I ever tell you you're just not my type?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost in translation

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I ain't got no money, and nobody'd be daft enough to pay me for this. As it is thought, so let it be said; you make the toys, I play with 'em.
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/opinion/decoding-the-rules-of-conversation.html?_r=1
> 
> Lol, there needs to be a rating for shugary shweet ;)

Waiting for the damn fog to lift so they could take off from this damned tourist-filled airport, Lee had let Caesar goad him into ranting about the crappy curry at last night's restaurant while the rest of the gang half-dozed in their uncomfortable seats from the boredom, only giving him the occasional 'um' of encouragement. Barney even had his nose buried in a bloody magazine as he fed Lee the odd straight line.

"Hey Lee?"

Interrupted mid-sentence, this time, Lee blinked at him in surprise, "Yeah?"

Barney's head rose from the glossy paper to give him one of his warm smiles, "I ever tell you you're just not my type?" 

And then he got up and walked away from his open-mouthed team.

Lee recovered first, staring where Barney had disappeared around a corner 10 yards away, "What.The.Fuck??" he looked at Caesar, then at Thorn who'd been sitting nearest to Barney, "The hell did I say??"

Except that Thorn looked just as lost as the rest of the amused crew. "I don't know... didn't hear you say anything I'd have thought meant anything.." he looked at the magazine curiously, "Maybe.."

Lee kept frowning, staring distractedly at Thorn's face as he read the page Barney'd left the thing at, trying to remember what the hell he'd been ranting.

"Errr-" Lee attention focused at the boy's choke, catching a wide-eyed look of some mix of shock and laughter, "You- uh. Might want to read this, Christmas." And he leaned across the space between them to hand him the article, fingers on a paragraph. Still wearing that faintly crazed look.

~Even British courtships can be conducted ironically. ‘You’re just not my type,’ uttered in the right tone and in the context of banter, can be tantamount to a proposal of marriage.~

Lee stared at the paper and had to reread it five times before he was convinced he really *had* read that right. "He.... He didn't just..."

"Sure looks like it to me." This time the choke was definite laughter, and Lee didn't blame the guy. Hell. What the *hell*, Barney???

\--

It didn't take much skill to find his prey in the small foodcourt a couple minutes walk away.

"That sure of me, were you?" 

Razzing aside, he still slouched into the empty chair in front of the coffee waiting for him across from Barney.

Who gave him a familiar smirk, "Think I know you pretty good, yeah. But if you hadn't shown I'd have just bought the rest of them some and brought them over."

Lee raised his brows at him, "And been tempted to dump this," he raised the caramel latte Barney usually ragged him for liking, "In my lap, I bet."

The shrug he got wasn't a denial, but the smile it came with was too warm to support the threat.

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, watching the other travellers stuck around them. He supposed he aught to be either uncomfortable, or at least annoyed at Barney's weird game, but after a mission that went off without any serious plan-changes, spending a few relaxed minutes with his friend, quiet, just the two of them, at ease, at peace, nothing to prove, nothing to discuss, was a gift he wouldn't give up. Just the two of them. 

"Why do it like that?"

He only turned away from watching a kid chase a ball with a frazzled father on his tail when he saw Barney turn his head toward him. Instead of either irony or defensiveness, or even calm blankness, he found a rare attentive but open expression. "Because getting on one knee the American way seemed more likely to get me banter than the question taken seriously."

Picturing it, Lee had to huff agreement. Though if Thorn hadn't looked at that article, the question would have been just as lost after all these years of banter without buried meaning.

"You gonna answer?"

Lee used a sip to hide the smirk that tried to escape. The words had been even, but he was sure that was slightly edgy impatience around the eyes. Barney wasn't as cool as he was trying to seem.

He stood, staring at the table as he stepped around it so Barney couldn't read his eyes. Was he really doing this? In the middle of Tampa airport? 

When he stood next to Barney's chair, he slid his half-full coffee next to Barney's. And casually reached over to wrap his palm around Barney's jaw as he leaned down. He'd once thought if they ever kissed, it'd be hard and hungry and a contest of wills. Nowdays, he wasn't so surprised that it turned out to be just soft presses of parted lips as he lowered himself to one knee. And either his ears were too focused on Barney... or the noisy room had suddenly hushed.

He felt Barney's lips stretch in that small smile of his after a few of those little kisses, and he very deliberately shifted, and pulled that pouty lower lip between his teeth for a gentle bite before pulling back and whispering, eyes opening so he could watch the face so close to his as he felt Barney's hands come to rest on the back of his skull, "To have until we pass out. To hold through the night. Bruised and bleeding or suntanning on the beach. Face the guns onto death. Together."


End file.
